History of the Kodak Kolorkins

Kodak Kolorkins were a stuffed animals created by the Eastman Kodak Company and sold in a number of countries starting in the late 1980s. Typically the UPCs from Kodak film were required to order them. Over 20 million Kolorkins were sold around the world, including 750 000 in Canada. These colorful fantasy creatures came to Earth from the planet Koloron in search of colors that didn't exist on their own planet.

The first batch of four Kolorkins was offered by Kodak Canada in 1988. Like Kodak itself, the characters were given meaningless names starting with the letter K: Kosmic (red), Klakki (gold), Kazoom (green), and Kwikki (light blue). The same four Kolorkins were offered for sale in the United States in 1989, but the characters were given photography-related names: Flash (red), Snap (gold), Zoom (green), and Click (light blue). It's possible that Kodak Canada chose not to use photography-related names in order to have a single set of names for both English and French-speaking customers. A second set of three Kolorkins was offered by Kodak Canada starting in 1989: Kabboo (yellow), Kizmo (dark blue), and Kitzi (dark pink). The same Kolorkins were offered for sale in the United States in 1990, renamed Shutter (yellow), Focus (dark blue), and Rewind (dark pink). Kodak Limited began offering the first series of Kolorkins in the United Kingdom in 1990, using the same names as the first series of USA Kolorkins, but the Kolorkin named Click was based on the dark blue Kolorkin from the second series (US Focus/Canada Kizmo). A third series of three Kolorkins were offered exclusively by Kodak Canada starting in 1994: Kito (orange), Koink (purple), and Kikki (light pink).

Full-size Kolorkins

Color

Canada

USA

UK

First series

Red

Kosmic

Flash

Flash

Gold

Klakki

Snap

Snap

Green

Kazoom

Zoom

Zoom

Light blue

Kwikki

Click

n/a

Second series

Yellow

Kabboo

Shutter

n/a

Dark blue

Kizmo

Focus

Click

Dark pink

Kitzi

Rewind

n/a

Third series

Orange

Kito

n/a

n/a

Purple

Koink

n/a

n/a

Light pink

Kikki

n/a

n/a

In 1999, Kodak Canada celebrated its centennial of operations in Canada by releasing a series of five mini Kolorkins, which were beanbags. Four of them were more or less copies of the full-sized red, gold, green and dark blue Kolorkins, and a new black Kolorkin was added, which supposedly could only be ordered with all of the other four. A series of three mini Kolorkins were offered in the United States in 2000 wearing Team USA Olympic jerseys, and were available in black, white and pink. A series of four finger puppets were sold, apparently in both Canada and the United States, but the year they were first offered is currently unknown.